Literary recommendation: ‘Complete work I Poetry’, by Eugenio Montejo, the teacher of simplicity and life

For Augusto Rodriguez | Journalist and writer

I believe that the best poetry book published in 2021 is, without a doubt, Complete work I Poetry (Editorial Pre-texts) of the Venezuelan poet Eugenio Montejo (Caracas, 1938-2008). I affirm this because it was a highly anticipated book because it brings together all the poetic production of the remembered Venezuelan poet. A silent teacher. A teacher who reads between the lines. A master of slower and deeper images.

This anthology brings together his best books and some already emblematic such as Cicada Sheet Music, Scribe’s fable, World alphabet, Earthiness. Next World alphabet:

In vain I linger spelling / the alphabet of the world. I read a dark sob in the stones, echoes drowned in towers and buildings, I investigate the earth by touch / full of rivers, landscapes and colors, but when I copy them I am always wrong. I need to write within a line / on the horizon book. Draw the miracle of those days / that float wrapped in light and give off in birdsong. When in the street the men who wander / from their resentment to their fatigue, pondering, they reveal themselves to me more innocent than ever. When the gambler, the rogue, the adulteress, the martyrs of gold or love / are just signs that I have not read well, that I still cannot write down in my notebook. How much I would like at least for a moment / for this feverish plane of poetry / to engrave in its transparency each letter: the o of the thief, the t of the saint / the gothic diphthong of the body and its desire, with the same writing of the sea in the sands / the same cosmic piety / that life displays before my eyes.

Editorial Pre-texts has been launched with the idea of ​​rescuing his letters, his narrative, and essays in other volumes. Necessary task in collaboration with Venezuelans Antonio López Ortega, Miguel Gomes, Graciela Yáñez Vicentini.

What I I celebrate is the recovery of a much-needed work, an authentic poet, a teacher of simplicity and life. An important voice within the poetic panorama of the last century and forever. (THE)